For people walking up Moreno Avenue's steep uphill from Eighth Street, there is no sidewalk on either side of the road.
This is to change, at least for 100 feet or so on the north side, based on an action by the Colorado Springs Planning Commission in July.
The vote approved a development plan from AAJ LLC that brings into compliance the existing use of its RV storage business on the flat portion of the roughly 2-acre
property and adds a fence to screen the RVs from street views, according to city planner Heather Rose.
The sidewalk is also part of the development plan. The RV ownership had sought to delay that public amenity until adjacent properties also are developed with
sidewalks, but the commission agreed with Rose's recommendation to require the walking surface construction now. Part of the reason, she said, is that it would be
“hard to track something like this” in the future - i.e., with possible changes of property owners and planners, the requirement might be forgotten if it is put off.
“I objected because it's a sidewalk that goes to nowhere,” said Les Gruen, who worked on the plans for AAJ LLC. Also, because of water running down the hill,
“the edges of the sidewalk are going to get beat up,” he predicted.
What Gruen suggested was “a more global strategy” in which sidewalk should go in more fully along the Moreno hill. He noted that “both sides of the street are very
well used” by pedestrians - especially on the south side, where people regularly walk up from Eighth Street to go to the Pikes Peak Mental Health Center. “Nobody
disputes the fact that every time you drive by there all these folks are trudging up that darn hill,” Gruen said.
Contacted afterward, Cynthia Doty of Pikes Peak Mental Health agreed that the hill “is fairly well traveled” by people on foot coming to the center. “They are
dropped off by public transit,” she said. “I don't have the numbers.”
As for a sidewalk to accommodate those folks, Doty expressed interest at the news that the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority (RTA) has a program in
which it installs sidewalks around the city. “I would be interested in looking into that,” she said.
The only other nearby sidewalk is in front of the Gold Hill Police Substation, just west of Pikes Peak Mental Health, which was required when the substation was built
last year.